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“There Is A Sucker Born Every Minute”

A phrase often credited to P. T. Barnum (1810-1891). I received in the mail an appeal letter from Food For The Poor in which they sent me 6 cents and requested that I send them $12 which was supposed to pay for 200 meals! Six Cents sent to 100,000 people would be $6,000.00. That would pay for a lot of meals!!! I guess they assume they will get the 6 cents back. Now, don’t get me wrong, I am not opposed to being charitable, but I want to know that what I do is really going to the “needy”, not the marketing and the administrators.

In doing some research, I found some very good sites to review in regards to these children charities and how they spend the donations. Although, I liked this one site: http://www.squidoo.com/child-organizations#module2325750 in which he discusses the salaries of the CEOs of the organizations. If you have ever wondered just how the organization spends your donation, do some research. In this site he mentions that the financial statements do not have to expose how much the CEOs are making, and it appears that some of them are getting salaries over $400,000 a year.

There are many factors to consider. One factor is that many of these charities are international organizations that require a skilled executive team to effectively run a global oganizaiton. You also need to have a salary structure that will attract
talented and experienced individuals. However, I believe that the CEO’s salary and all the executive levels salaries should be stated clearly on the charity website, with a link on the home page so that people can decide if they want to support wealthy CEOs.

How does the above article on charitable donations relate to our relationships? Well, most of us have emphathy and sympathy for people less fortunate than us – and in our relationships with humanity, we satisfy this need through some type of giving, usually through an organization such as our church, the VA, and in a lot of circumstances, a not-for-profit foundation. Here is my advice – In pursuing your relationship with these oranizations, I am just recommending that you do your research and check them out. Let me know your thoughts on this. Are you regularly sending money to an international charity organization? Are you comfortable with it?

Change of subject: MAY – ONE OF THE MOST FABULOUS MONTHS, don’t you think! Everything is in bloom – of course, in Florida we have flora that bloom all year. We are so lucky! Advice- get outside or open a window and enjoy it.